1/11Moran pauses to savor victory with his well-worn, record-achieving timeslip. He has piloted his Monte Carlo-bodied door-slammer faster in the quarter-mile than any other turbo car in the world.

Mike Moran is a man possessed. There is no other reason he would spend five years of his life chasing 0.300 of a second. This story is a follow-up to the one titled "I Will Run 5s" in the Oct. '04 issue of HOT ROD (page 54), which cataloged Mike's racing life up to that point and his chase to pilot the first turbocharged door-slammer through the quarter-mile in 5 seconds. At that time, Mike's car had run 6.27 seconds in the quarter and he felt close enough to the record to talk about it in HOT ROD. To cut to the chase, Mike recently achieved his goal: piloting his 3,700hp, twin-turbo, 572ci Monte Carlo door-slammer through the traps at the Spring Open at Valdosta Dragway in Valdosta, Georgia, at an astonishing 5.97 seconds at 251 mph.

Said Mike after the feat, "Well, it has been a battle for many, many years-but I knew we could do it. I need to thank a lot of businesses that have helped me over the years and all the guys who have supported me over the years, some since our street racing days almost 20 years ago. We set a ridiculous record. I'm glad we got it done and look forward to our next challenge."

The journey to this record is just as intriguing as the record itself, so we bring you the slog for all to understand how he did it.

2/11The engine bay has seen lots of changes, but this is the package that ran into the 5s. Rear-mounted Precision turbos make less power than the front-mounted system, but power production has never been a problem.

The Path To 5 seconds In A Turbo Door-SlammerHere is a summary of Mike's journey to a 5-second timeslip. Notice how many actions he performed that did not make the car go faster. Anyone who races knows there are many more did-not-work attempts than there are aha moments, but the occasional gains are what get the job done.

November 2004Approached by Kenny Knowling to be the first-ever turbo car to race in NHRA Pro Mod, car is written into rules but intercoolers are not allowed, so Mike switches it to run on methanol (because it runs cooler).Performance: No improvementWeight: 2,975 pounds

May 2005Shows up at Pro Mod race with 91mm turbocharged, electronic fuel-injected, methanol-burning, 572ci engine with 32 160-lb/hr injectors to flow enough fuel.Performance: Car is competitive in Las Vegas Pro Mod event but has a spectacular explosion at finish line from injector malfunction.Weight: 2,975 pounds

3/11Mike and friends thrashed back in January 2005 on the forward-mounted turbo package at the now-defunct Wheel2Wheel shop. As Mike says, "The turbos like to be out in the atmosphere to make power." But he quickly found that getting the power to the ground was more important.

October 2005Runs first version of Moran Motorsports Power-Tip 5 injectors for methanol and has Larson Race Cars redo the firewall to seal up the engine bay from the interior.Performance: No improvementWeight: 2,975 pounds

4/11Mike has made literally thousands of runs with his well-worn Monte Carlo. Most are not full passes. Mike says, "A track either can or can't handle the power this car puts down. If it kicks the tires off, you're not going to drive through it. I learned to just shut it down and start figuring out what to do the next time."

October 2008After a summer of bad tracks that couldn't handle power, runs at Houston and gets car to hook on worn-out slicks in 40-mph headwind.Performance: 6.01 seconds/251 mphWeight: 2,825 pounds

February 2009Same package as in 2008 but with new slicks and running at Valdosta. Car wheelies viciously to eighth-mile with the front tires 3 feet in air, but it's hooked up.Performance: No improvement but feels good-ready to go for recordWeight: 2,825 pounds

March 2009Back at Valdosta with Todd Thomson-rebuilds Lamb struts (the others got worn out from being transported without chassis savers) after an all-night thrash/drive and adds 40 pounds of weight to the nose.Performance: 5.97/251 mph-the goal is reachedWeight: 2,865 pounds

5/11This is a photo of the front-mounted turbo engine package the last time Mike had it at the track. The large tank just in front of the engine held the methanol fuel.

The Record RunHere's Mike with the details on his record run: "The trip to Valdosta couldn't have come at a worse point in the year. I was on a skeleton crew due to scheduling conflicts with my partner, Bart Lemieux, and crewmembers, Larry Larson, Adam Wyatt, Bob Stark, Matt Tret, and Matt Grawberg. Due to everyone's schedule, we only had time for one day at the track and made only six attempts at a pass and only one full WOT [wide-open throttle] run that day.

"We left Detroit late on a Wednesday night with ace fabricator Dave 'Whitey' Brown and my loyal crewmember Michael 'BoBo' Biehle, driving through the night and unloading Thursday morning.

"After doing some basic prep work, the first pass was made at about 10 a.m. The car went about 100 feet out and shook the tires hard while turning to the left. I backed off the throttle to correct with the steering wheel and aborted the run but was impressed with the track conditions. They were incredible: good grip and mild temps. I felt it would hold a record run if we could get the chassis right.

6/11Mike has developed his own high-flow injectors. The PowerTip 5 injectors will flow up to 600 lb/hr, and he has twin sets of injectors, each flowing 500 lb/hr, fueling his 3,700hp, methanol-burning turbo engine. A lot of big-power cars are now running these injectors.

"We went back to the pits, and I went for what my crew calls the 'gorilla tune,' listing out about seven things to tune the chassis and up the power.

1. I had Whitey change the rear steer in the rear suspension (a labor-intensive job of changing the lengths of all the four-link bars by about 1/4 inch).

2. I got out the laptop and changed the boost controller timers (a Moran-developed feature) and the ignition timing curve in the BigStuff3 controller to throw power in earlier on the run.

3. We changed the front strut rebound a quarter turn and bolted 40 pounds in the nose to minimize weight transfer on the launch as the car was wheelieing to the 300-foot mark.

4. We added counterweight to the clutch (in this case, a series of nuts) to lock the clutch earlier.

5. We physically moved the two-step switch on the clutch to reduce the flaring (slipping) it was experiencing during initial clutch engagement.

6. We changed the settings on the rear shocks: The right side got max compression damping, and the left rear was set at the minimum to help limit the body roll at launch.

7. We lowered the wheelie bars 1/2 inch (1/2 turn on the adjustment) to minimize wheelieing.

We got everything put back together and were at the starting line by 5:30 p.m."

7/11Would you go 251 mph in the quarter-mile in a car this short?

From there, Mike strapped in and the crew went about getting him positioned for the run.

"I had all kinds of things going through my head as we got to the line," Mike says. "But the burnout went well and I was able to focus on getting the engine up on the prestage chip and then into the two-step mode smoothly before the green flashed-which is critical as the car shakes so violently during this moment that I need to do it for as short a time as possible. At the launch, the car moved a little to the left [see video of the run in the mzone at moranmotorsports.com], but I was able to correct with a light tug on the steering as the car dropped slightly between the one and two shift. From there, the run was straight and hooked up to the finish. To be honest, the run was very controlled but fast-very fast."

Yeah, 5 seconds in the quarter at 250-plus mph in a 112-inch-wheelbase, stock-bodied vehicle-that's fast.

8/11This recent night shot of the car staging for a run shows burning fuel coming out of the main 5-inch titanium exhaust pipe and the pop-off valve-which means the vehicle is on the two-step rev limiter and making some incredible noise.

Cannon FireIf you have ever been at a dragstrip when a big-power turbo car like Mike's comes to the line, you know the startling cacophony of blasts this title refers to, but you might not know what's going on. So here is the inside skinny from Mike.

"The starting line sequence for these cars is something a few of us big-horsepower turbo guys started doing a few years ago to make the cars consistent enough to run in heads-up drag racing action. The short story is that these drag cars need to get a 90mm-or-bigger turbo impeller spinning about 14,000 rpm to generate 15 psi of intake tract boost at the starting line. The turbine speed needs to be achieved in less than 0.5 second, as once the two staging lights are lit, you usually have about that time before the Tree lights the green lights.

"Once I light the second light on the Tree, I floor the gas pedal with the clutch pedal depressed. This engages a program in the BigStuff3 electronic engine controller to pull all the timing advance out of the MSD ignition system. This causes most of the combustion process to occur between the Manley Inconel exhaust valves and the stainless Precision turbo impeller-and the resulting pressure waves force the turbo exhaust wheel to spin faster and faster."

These explosions increase the speed of the pressurizing impeller on the turbo and increase the boost pressure.

Mike adds sheepishly, "While this process works to have the car ready to launch in half a second, the noise that emanates from the exhaust is punishing. It's like a Gatlin machine gun hurling atom bombs off the side of the car. I have tried earplugs, but they don't really help much. The concussion from the explosions is something you feel more than hear-it is a really violent moment.

"Once the lights come down and the car is launched, it's a matter of keeping the car pointed straight, pulling gears, and enjoying the smooth power being applied to the ground."